get asked, saw this,so……..If Dale Earnhardt Jr. ever wonders whether there would be life for him after DEI, all he has to do is look to Ty Norris. Norris served as Dale Earnhardt Inc.’s vice president/director of motorsports for nearly eight years. But 16 months after leaving the post, Norris is thriving in a less pressure-packed environment as one of the principals behind the new Official NASCAR Members Club though he still keeps tabs on his former employer. Launched in February at Daytona, the fan-based club has quickly grown to more than 10,000 members with little publicity or advertising. And Norris hopes the membership will continue to expand. “We’re now going to start to turn on the faucet for acquisition in June and start to bring a lot more people in,” said Norris, who is one of four senior vice presidents of the NMC. “Our desire is to be the largest-based affinity program ever created, and with 75 million fans to pull from, you’d think we could reach it.” The NMC is a club for fans of the sport, with a frequent flyer-style program that awards members with discounts and other special offers that, according to Norris, include deals and access traditionally reserved for those within the garage. Memberships run $40 per year, but the return on investment is immediate: in the initiation kit, members receive roughly $700 in discount coupons and offers. While Norris realizes the NMC is a radical departure from his role at DEI and from his subsequent 10-month stint as a vice president of Speedway Motorsports Inc. he’s at peace with himself and having a blast. While he won’t give specifics about why he left DEI, Norris can’t help but still feel some emotional attachment to the team particularly with the organization’s current struggles, most notably with Earnhardt Jr.’s under-performing #8 team. “It’s really heartbreaking, to be honest with you,” Norris said. “I left eight years of 24 hours a day laying on the concrete at the shop when I left. It’s hard for me not to have an opinion about it. I’m disappointed they’re not doing better. I still have a lot of passion for the place.” Like many observers, Norris is baffled by some of the changes that have occurred since he left, including some of the same changes bandied about while he was still there.(see full article at Yahoo Sports)(6-15-2005)
